Tactics Siren Death

[John BigBoutie]

Me and a group of killer kiters have been slowly working our way through HoE maps. We can handle the scrakes, the fleshpounds, the husks... but we are regularly mobbed by 4+ sirens that spawn right in front of us on certain maps: Bedlam and Icebreaker notably (it's what we've been working on lately).

Now sometimes I find myself staring into space at breakfast, lost in my own obsessive hatred of sirens. My cereal goes soggy, my coffee goes cold.

Can someone help with some strategy or advice on killing large group of sirens that suddenly appear out of nowhere? Prease?

 

[Undedd Jester]

Firebug or Demo works pretty solid on em.

If they are out of scream range (or if you time it well) firebugs and demos can chuck in a grenade and quickly set it of by shooting at them with either their flamethrower or nade launchers. Since they aren't too high health they will either be dead of very close to dead.

Obviously if you have someone with a good shot the good old sharpshooter mops them up pretty quickly with the LAR. Have a Commando or support punch out the stuff ahead of them if they are being meat shielded and just aim for the mouth

Other than that there isn't much you can do other than keep on the lookout for them and hit em early.

 

[John BigBoutie]

Thanks for the response, Undedd!! Great advice for killing those beeyotches in general. I always aim for the mouth. (wait, what are we talking about again?)

The problem is we are 6 zerkers always on the move and when we turn a blind corner: BAM! multiple sirens. When they are in range, no problem. One of the zerkers carries an xbow, another a nade launcher. But in close quarters, it seems rather impossible.

Do you think it's best to run away or take them out with alt axe swings? Pass out earplugs to everyone? It's really really frustrating when this happens several times in one wave.

 

[Undedd Jester]

Well, as Zerkers it is tough in enclosed maps, the only thing I can think of is to try and ambush them around corners. Siren screams can't go round walls and there is always about a second pause between each scream.

You can make them scream by running in range and then immediately duck behind a corner yourself to avoid majoirty of the blast. Gauge how far they are away from your corner then dash round and lop off the nearest ones head.

Depending on how many there are and how close they are you can either go for the next or duck back and wait for the scream to occur again. With the Zerkers damage resistance you should be able to withstand a fair few blows this way.

Best advice I can give really is don't clump together, have a decent spread between you so that you don't all get simulatenously boxed in.



Only other thing I can think of is having 1 of you Medic with a hunting shotgun. A double blast has good stopping power and can punch out a siren very quickly with relatively little danger, and makes the above tactic far easier.

Plus healing up afterwards isn't a problem.

 

[ph30nix]

alternately (and obviously i guess)

Try to plan your route as best you can if your going to a narrow corridor or sharp turns do so (for example on the bedlam 2 floor courtyard people seem to like to defend Never EVER use the dark staircase with the fencing at top to ascend)

if its a long corridor with turn at the end, and no spawns between you and there, have the medic or beserker run a distance ahead to cause them to spawn, then fall back while demo/pyro or someone throw some AoE damage at them if not around corner yet or Sharp to pick them off in line of sight.

In same above situation if ALOT of guys spawned at the corner could always do an about face (dpends which pack is bigger/stronger to deal with)

also abuse Line of Sight spawning (work best for icebreaker) Try to stick to outter areas of ship and as you move have people cover vantage points to prevent spawning in certain areas (ever notice how when your on top of ship half of them spawn all the way at lowest deck then work their way up side stairs?

above that just plan your route, good luck especialy on bedlam

 

[Deafmute]

Now sometimes I find myself staring into space at breakfast, lost in my own obsessive hatred of sirens. My cereal goes soggy, my coffee goes cold.

I feel your pain.

Only other thing I can think of is having 1 of you Medic with a hunting shotgun. A double blast has good stopping power and can punch out a siren very quickly with relatively little danger, and makes the above tactic far easier.

Plus healing up afterwards isn't a problem.

I'm token Medic in the group. Good idea, hadn't thought of that.

 

[nutterbutter]

Now sometimes I find myself staring into space at breakfast, lost in my own obsessive hatred of sirens. My cereal goes soggy, my coffee goes cold.

Can someone help with some strategy or advice on killing large group of sirens that suddenly appear out of nowhere? Prease?

Just like in real life. Get four women together and they will nag you to death. Just be happy the waves aren't long enough for their cycles to sync.

 

[Darkwave]

Just like in real life. Get four women together and they will nag you to death. Just be happy the waves aren't long enough for their cycles to sync.

4 mother-in-law's...

 

[systumseng]

Sirens by the dozen

Sirens by the dozen

Well, not really, but we DID get hit with four-packs of 'em on Hospital.

The poster that suggested spreading out a bit may be on to something. We were running 5 zerkers and a Scary medic. I was in the lead (not for any reasons of toughness or bravery I just wanted to get away from everything chasing us).

If I could see a siren(s) up ahead, and there was enough room, I'd stop and try for them with my bow. If there wasn't enough room, or if I was running lead blocker for someone kiting an FP, or when I would come barrelling around a corner and straight into a pack of sirens, the basic plan was to pick the closest, get three good whacks with the katana at it's neck, then blow past as fast as possible.

Not sure what that accomplished exactly, as I never slowed down enough to turn and see, but I guess it generally resulted in one dead siren and the other two or three turning to target on me, giving the next squadmate in line a free shot at their backs.

As another poster pointed out, the zerker can take some damage. Add in a quick self-heal, a good medic, and the fact that siren screams don't damage armor, and I was generally able to get through without too much pain, if I KEPT MOVING.

Stopping and trying to go toe-to-toe with all of them seemed to be where it all would come unravelled.

 

[John BigBoutie]

Thanks for the great responses. Some really good ideas in there -- and it does really halp to have a Scary medic.

A lot of it also depends on the map and knowing where the tight spots are. Looking forward to trying to arm up with advanced weaponry and spreading out a bit at those hairy points of conflict.... and killing lots of lots of those blasted sirens.

 

[Lacedaemonius]

I recommend someone starting off as support and buying several coach guns. Give them to 2-3 team members (who can back it up with a katana). An AA12 works even better once you have the dosh.

 

[Deafmute]

thanks for the great responses. Some really good ideas in there -- and it does really halp to have a scary medic.

:3

 

[JCoquillon]

To be honest the issue seems to be that you are playing the worst class for sirens.

They have to be taken down at range and then are harmless. Commandos and Sharpshooters should be removing those kind of threats before they come close to being within range.

If you are a squad of 6 beserkers you lack that long range firepower and when you run into them you're only option is to run away or to charge and melee them which is tough when under their screams.

You could do with a mixed team or keeping some guys back with some longer range weapons on standby.

 

[Fish111]

If you are a squad of 6 beserkers you lack that long range firepower and when you run into them you're only option is to run away or to charge and melee them which is tough when under their screams.

You could do with a mixed team or keeping some guys back with some longer range weapons on standby.

Unless some of the zerkers did something completely unheard-of, like carrying an off-perk handcannon, lever action, m79, or bow.

 

[nutterbutter]

If you are a squad of 6 beserkers you lack that long range firepower...

Nope. Zerkers can carry any long range weapon in the game and those unperked weapons are lethal enough for the siren.

 

[scary ghost]

Unless some of the zerkers did something completely unheard-of, like carrying an off-perk handcannon, lever action, m79, or bow.

Nope. Zerkers can carry any long range weapon in the game and those unperked weapons are lethal enough for the siren.

What a revolutionary idea! I would have never thought to carry a long range weapon as a zerker. What geniuses you two are.

 

[JCoquillon]

What my point was is that sirens are the natual nemesis of the beserker. The one ZED designed to **** them up as much as possible if they try and tackle them in the usual zerker way. It's why the game has different classes to play as, to allow different players to have different responsibilities and to cover eachother weak areas.

 

[nutterbutter]

What my point was is that sirens are the natual nemesis of the beserker. The one ZED designed to **** them up as much as possible if they try and tackle them in the usual zerker way. It's why the game has different classes to play as, to allow different players to have different responsibilities and to cover eachother weak areas.

Nope. Even with only using melee weapons, the zerker can handle sirens with ease. Once players get more comfortable fighting sirens, they will actually rush them more often. Not a group of four or more a distance away, but drop two separated sirens near any perk other than zerker and that perk is probably dead. Zerker has enough speed and resistances to charge one while resisting the other's attack. Only the zerker and the medic has the speed to do this.

Charging a siren is a very useful tool because it changes the siren from screaming to biting. It sounds counter-intuitive to rush sirens, but the zerker has the speed to decapitate the siren before she can scream.

Zerker has no natural enemies.

 

[John BigBoutie]

I love decapitating sirens.

 

[John BigBoutie]

So just a quick update -- last night we took some of this advice and kicked butt on HoE Icebreaker. Most of us were outfitted with 'nade launchers and we took the "spread out and keep moving no matter what" approach to siren clumps. (The one time I died it was trying to take on a group of three sirens with my katana. Oops, guess I was getting cocky.) But by getting some distance from us and the zeds at the ship ends and taking them out from afar with long range weapons we were able to defeat the map pretty handily.

Thanks again for all the good advice!